Frederick Benteen

Frederick Benteen (24 August 1834-22 June 1898) was a Major of the US Army during the American Civil War and Plains Indian Wars. He is best-known for his role in the defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876.

Biography
Frederick Benteen was born on 24 August 1834 in Petersburg, Virginia, and his family moved to St. Louis, Missouri in 1849. Benteen entered a volunteer cavalry regiment of the Union Army during the American Civil War, and he was brevetted a Lieutenant-Colonel after fighting in the Western theater and ending the war taking part in Wilson's Raid in Alabama and the state of Georgia in 1865. In January 1867, he was sent to command Troop H of the US 7th Cavalry Regiment under George Armstrong Custer, and he served in the campaigns against the Cheyenne on the Kansas frontier and other wars on the southern plains against the Native Americans. After defeating a 200-strong Cheyenne raiding party at Elk Horn Creek, he was brevetted a colonel, earning him the adoration of the people of Kansas. In the Battle of the Washita River, he was unhorsed by Black Kettle's son, and Benteen reluctantly shot the kid after multiple peaceful overtures; each time, the kid tried to shoot him with a revolver. During the Battle of the Little Bighorn, he disobeyed Custer's orders and did not deliver ammunition packs to him as ordered, allowing for Custer to be surrounded and killed with most of his men. Benteen instead remained with Marcus Reno's men, and he survived the battle. He would be criticized, but his military career would continue with the Nez Perce War of 1877 and the Battle of Canyon Creek. In 1887, Benteen was suspended for drunk and disorderly conduct, and he died in 1898.